


Destablization

by Ninj



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Gen, Skye leads the Inhumans, Ward is not a good guy, Ward leads Hydra, pre-Civil War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-27
Updated: 2015-10-27
Packaged: 2018-04-28 09:10:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5086234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ninj/pseuds/Ninj
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ward leads Hydra now. He's pretty good at it. His work allows him to get what he wants on occassion. Never do anything for free.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Destablization

It goes like this, Ward survives being shot in the shoulder. Survival is his best skill. He’s in charge of Hydra now too, so Hydra survives, because it turns out there are always people who want to tear something apart. Ward’s Hydra (and it is his, imposters are destroyed with extreme prejudice) isn’t into world domination. After the shootout with Hunter and May he distributes pictures of Coulson’s team to his trusted lieutenants so that the Hunter incident doesn’t happen again. Then he gives orders to avoid Shield while he lays some solid groundwork.

Within six months he has Hydra squads taking hits on world and business leaders. They don’t go up against Shield unless they have to. However, if the job you hire Hydra for lets them humiliate Shield you get a 5% discount. 10% if they go up against Coulson’s team. So far, not a lot of takers on that last one. Hydra won’t deal with the capture of Inhumans. 

Ward’s been following the Inhumans and the A.T.C.U situation carefully. Skye -and Ward will never not call her Skye, is his favorite. Favorite what depends on the day. He’s got a no kill order on her. But two weeks of intense coverage with Shield and the A.T.C.U’s final battle with Lash and he definitely put a kill order on sparky. She’s still too soft, and Lincoln makes it worse. 

The reality is, fighting Shield all the time is an excellent way to end up dead. Causing trouble here, there, and everywhere may make him a nuisance, but it doesn't make Hydra enough of a threat to interest the Avengers.

Two months after the throwdown with Lash, Ward finds himself making a deal with Rosalind Price.

“We want Daisy Johnson,” Rosalind tells Ward who had tentatively arranged the meeting. He has two snipers on her, and another group laying a false trail for her men. 

Ward has to take a breath and remind himself that it’s his fault she goes by that ridiculous name now. He thought it would be a good idea to introduce her to her parents. That had not gone well in retrospect. 

“Want her how?” Ward makes a go on motion. 

“We’ve tried to take her into custody with limited success. You have the highest success rate on containment.”

“There were mitigating circumstances,” Ward isn’t missing that she hasn’t specified. “We go way back. I knew her when as they say. You’ll have to forgive me, but I just don’t see life being as interesting without her to harass.” 

“We don’t want to kill Agent Johnson,” Price rolls her eyes. “We want the Inhumans under A.T.C.U control. Where she goes they go.”

Ward can’t believe this woman. He’s really weighting the joys of stealing Skye out from under Coulson and the wrath that will insue for months versus the benefit of staying out of this one, and only having pot shots taken at him when the opportunity arrises. Weighting all that against the fact that this proposition is bullshit and she’s been listening to Coulson’s team too much. 

“No deal,” Ward shakes his head. “I’ve followed your press. There’s zero benefit to this for you, and no way to control Skye once you have her. Which means you want something else.”

“You put a hit out on Lincoln Campbell,” Price changes the subject again. “She’s not going to be too happy about that.” 

Ward allows his smile to become wolfish. “I know. She’s hot when she’s angry.”

He’s got his team radioing in a reassuring stream of information about the A.T.C.U team trying to tail Price. They’re miles away where they’re supposed to be. They have them all contained, she’s really here alone. No signs of Shield though Ward is getting more and more sure he is being set up.

“If I provided proof we could contain Agent Johnson would you re-consider?” 

“Why are you hung up on Skye? You don’t really want her. You just worked with her and Coulson to take out Lash. No matter how much power Shield has lost, you have to know not to betray Coulson. How many times are you looking to get shot exactly?” Ward challenges. “You have two minutes to stop wasting my time.”

“I need leverage,” Price explains. “I need Shield to let something happen, and they’ll back down for Agent Johnson.” 

“They really won’t,” Ward promises her. “But hey, nice try. You got a lot to learn.” 

“Lincoln and Daisy were hurt battling Lash,” Price reveals. “Coulson sent them to a less secure location to recover.”

“Now I’m just feeling set up,” Ward warns her. “It’s like gift wrapping all my favorite things. Even I’m not stupid enough to fall for that.” 

“Four days ago, a kill or capture was put out on Agent Johnson,” Price produces a drive from inside her jacket. “At first we thought it was you. Initially, Shield agreed, but eventually cooler heads prevailed.”

“I haven’t heard anything about it,” Ward and Skye keep track of each other. He hadn’t heard she was recovering from Lash in absentia, and he hadn’t heard that someone was looking for her. 

“If it isn’t Hydra we don’t know who it is,” Price confirms as she leaves the drive on the table behind her. “If there’s a new player, we need to know. The A.T.C.U is not going to capture a Shield agent and hand her over to an unknown entity. But Hydra might.”

“No,” Ward refuses. “We do work we’re contracted to do. And you’re not working with Shield on this. No way Coulson gives the ok on letting me anywhere near his team.”

“Yes, we understand that you have a fairly murderous relationship with each other,” Price almost looks amused. “But Hydra is being contracted to do this work. Once you’re done gathering the information you need, we’ll tell Coulson it was done at our instruction. Probably you can go back to trying to kill each other only if you have to.”

“The US Government? Contracting Hydra? Aren’t you afraid that’s going to get out?” Ward is not taking this job. But this gives him the intel necessary to accept another job. One that’s far more lucrative. “No deal.”

“Look you are literally the only convincing person who could take Agent Johnson into their custody,” Price looks irritated now. 

“She doesn’t lead all the Inhumans,” Ward speaks up. “Find someone else. Because once Skye is done dealing with whoever foolishly thinks capturing her is going to get them somewhere, she’s going to turn on whoever else was involved. She takes kidnapping really personally. Goodbye Agent Price.”

Ward walks out of the back of the warehouse. His ride is waiting. 

“Tell Senator Ford we can take his offer,” Ward orders Kebo. He wouldn’t be surprised if Ford had set this all up, but it is what it is. “Set up a flight for a small team to Norway.”

“I thought we weren’t taking the job to get the girl?” Kebo speaks up. He’s been looped in on the sound. And isn’t that interesting? Ward doesn’t share that he tracks Skye. 

“How do you know Skye is in Norway?” Ward questions. He’s not mad. Enterprising employees are good employees. Kebo would never be so stupid as to move against Skye.

“Always know where Coulson’s team is,” Kebo answers. “I hate losing good bases to their attempts to kill you.” 

***

Two weeks later a team decides to come for Skye and Lincoln. Ward has been observing them for days. His team has four different camera angles set up and ready to go. He’s breathing deep and steady with his sniper rifle on a rooftop many blocks away. 

As expected the attempt to capture Skye doesn’t work out for the mercenary group in question. She and Lincoln are doing a good job containing the team in question, without destroying a lot of public property. He waits until they’re down to the last two team members. The thing is Lincoln only cares about Daisy. He’s not really trained. So while Skye is taking care of the threat, Lincoln is just hanging out in the open. Which is why he doesn’t see the bullet to the back of the head coming. Ward is up and disassembling his gun before Lincoln's body hits the ground. 

“Let’s go,” Ward orders. “Wheels up in the 30 minutes.”

It takes less than two for Skye to realize there’s no help for Lincoln. Ward can't hear her rage, but he can watch it on the video monitor. She crumbles the building Hydra had been hiding in monitoring her. So, not as clueless as he'd hoped. Ward's pleased to see that Skye is hunting, and she’s not going to be talked down. He doesn’t want her to calm down. He hits dial on his phone once he’s in the car.

“Ward,” Skye sounds calmer than he’d like when she answers the phone. 

“Hey babe,” Ward greets smiling. “Just thought I’d pass on another lesson.”

“What’s this one supposed to be?” there’s now the satisfying sounds of sirens in the background. 

“That when you want to kill someone, you shoot them in the head,” Ward answers. “How many buildings did you destroy when you realized how easy it was to take him from you?”

Ward is actually scrolling through the video footage now. Only two. There’s a compelling case for one, but the second is just unnecessary collateral damage. It’s not all he and the Senator were hoping for, but he can try for more.

“You know the police in Norway have distinct anti-Inhuman sentiments,” the truth and only the truth. Norway prefers the gods that visit. Thor could ruin buildings for fun, and they’d give him more ale. “You should run.”

"Ward you didn't have to do this," Skye sounds aggravated. 

"That's correct. You should really be careful who you get close to Skye. I kinda thought you might care about him," Ward injects a teasing tone into his voice. "I get so touchy when you let other men fight by your side."

"Is this a joke to you?" Skye snarls even as Ward hears the police demand she put her hands up. 

"Well, I like to mix business with pleasure whenever possible. Thanks Skye. As always it's been fun," Ward hangs up the phone. Hits dial on another number. "Senator. I have video of Quake destroying a few buildings in Norway. If you get it edited fast enough it'll be compelling evidence in your bid to introduce a registration bill."

"Excellent. Pleasure to do business with you," Senator Frank hangs up the phone and Ward transfers the video as soon as he gets confirmation of the money moving.

**Author's Note:**

> The major character death is Lincoln. It's very fast and not discussed much. 
> 
> I don't see Skye and Ward as a romantic couple. Ward's just not able to leave Skye alone, and so he doesn't care for Lincoln. 
> 
> It is meant to imply that Ward helps with the start of Civil War. I love this version of Ward. It's not character hate. I'm really excited to see him as a bad guy.


End file.
